Reviews for

Lava Car Rental in Iceland

- At the counter of Lava Car Rental, we were told the the 2019 Dacia Duster Manual which we rented would not be available and were offered a Mitsubishi Eclipse (hybrid) and were told this would be an upgrade. However, when I said we would go, among others, to Landmanalaugar, including river-crossings, and if Dacia Duster wouldn't be better, this was confirmed and we were offered kind of a spare car modell 2019 Dacia Duster (with the comment that an alarm light would blink which would not be a mechanical but only elctronic problem). We took the car but it turned out to be quite worn out: it already had 194.000 km, a crooked steering wheel, smaller damages all over the car, several alarm signals came up during our road trip indicating several different issues.. for the very high price of the car rental (1000 EUR per week) I expected a much better condition of the car. I think we were only lucky that the car made it during our 3-week-trip without breaking down. - It took us one hour on the counter of Lava Car Rental to get the car due to a very slow employee (jamaican guy) who was not knowledgeable at all. Overall, only 1 out of 3 employees at that day was competent and was able to reply to our questions. - The woman who picked us up at the airport could have been friendlier.

I’m sure our experience was an isolated one, but our rental car experience with Lava was terribly stressful. The customer service agent did not explain anything to us in advance and was lacking people skills. We were given a vehicle with a lot of preexisting damage, that had a broken sliding door handle and would intermittently appear to be overheating (smoke was coming from the hood at certain points on our road trip). The dashboard never indicated any problems, but as foreigners in a new country for the first time with no cell service or WiFi access it was incredibly disconcerting to have to worry whether or not you would need to spend your vacation dealing with vehicle issues. There were other minor issues, for example electric cooler would unexpectedly stop working and the vehicle was missing kitchen items that were promised in the rental contract. The USB charging port in the cab did not work, and the length of the bed was shorter than advertised which was problematic for my husband who is 6’ 7” tall (this was something we gave detailed attention to throughout the booking process). The van also did not have cruise control, which was a feature that was promised in the rental description. The tires looked like spare tires (from an American’s perspective) and the rims were not the same as they had been pictured in the listing. We spent an absurd amount of our vacation time stressing out about the reliability of this vehicle instead of enjoying our first trip to Iceland, which was incredibly disappointing. Again, I share this not to complain or place blame on any company in particular, as I’m sure our experience was not the average one. I simply share to provide constructive feedback that might help Lava improve their company moving forward.

The Renault Kangoo is not a very nice campervan. Because there is no connection between the front of the car and the sleeping area. That makes the sleeping area very easily wet. The condens stays in this area and it was wet all over. Also there is no possibility to use the side door of the sleeping area and that's not so handy. Also the curtain in the back was to short . So the car from last year was much better for sleeping than this one

The car had some issues, only noticed later on when i was already far to go back to change the car. The reverse gear was jumping off, some gearbox problems were making almost impossible to reverse the car in a slow speed. The back wipers was so bad that was not cleaning, just making the glass more blurry. Tire pressure warning on the second day. Solved after putting air and reseting the system by myself. The reverse camera was not showing a proper image, even after trying to clean it, clearly a camera problem. The 3rd gear was scretchy, also a gearbox problem. The car was all beaten up when delivered, clearly the worst look dacia on the road, compared to same car from other rentals. All in all i was expecting a better car analisys and test before delivering it to the client.

This car was very nice with the 4x4. Unfortunately the navigation system wasn't working. In addition to this the car wasn't in good conditions. Many dents, leaking wheels and one part of the headlight was defective. Best regards Chris Richter

The car i was given was a great one, the customer service was great, my only complaint is that for some reason every time I rent from a local car rental the battery malfunctions and this time was no exception, when my battery died I called the car rental place and after almost 30 minutes they told me they weren't able to get someone to help me which means if it wasn't for a good Icelandic man whom helped me i would've been stuck for God knows how long, this is unacceptable specially on a place with a weather like Iceland

They forced us to upgrade our insurance booking because, apparently, the basic insurance and no-insurance were exactly the same. That increased our booking in around 300 euros.

We waited 1.5h to pick up the car because only one person was processing pick-ups and returns. The pair ahead of us had their car changed 2 times because of the car condition (ignition issue / one side of the car crashed and stop light not working) and someone calling for assistance due to technical issue was told to wait until next day for resolution. We took Nissan Xtrail which was advertised as 7 people, 3 bags, but actually with 7 seats occupied you can barely fit 1 suitcase (6th and 7th seat come at the expense of trunk space). Otherwise, no issue with the car or return. On the plus side, you get a discount with a gas station chain with a large footprint across the island

The car was great, no problems at all. And the customer service was kind and friendly. However we had to wait almost 90 minutes to pick up our car when we arrived, because they did not have a car available for us. And when we returned the car, it was not at all as long, maybe 30 minutes between the cue and then waiting for the shuttle to the airport. Perhaps they are understaffed.

The car and rental process was great. Unfortunately it did leave a bad taste in the end. I returned the car 1 full day early and did not receive a refund for that day. Evan

When doing the reservation there was no indication that the car has no aircondition. Had we known this we would not have reserved this car. This is something Northbound should have clarified in their site. When the need for the AC first arrived and we realized we have none we contacted Lava. We recieved an evading answer and that was the last we heard from them despite a follow up letter we wrote them. Regrdless of the above, the personnel at the site were very kind, nice and efficient, during both pick up and drop off. Otherwise the car needs a front weel balance- it pulls to the right (from the first day we had it).

Lava reported that there'd been a mishap with the campervan we were to have gotten, so they replaced it with a Dacia Duster for the first night, promising they'd have another camper coming in at 7:00 the next morning. Meanwhile the Duster they gave us had three indicator lights come on, so we had to call a couple times to get them to come to Reykjavik to replace it, which they did, and they brought along a wifi puck we asked to be added to our arrangement. We ended up without a place to stay that night, though luckily we were able to arrange to stay in our (short term) quarantine AirBnB. That evening we were told the camper wouldn't be ready until noon, but, getting anxious to not waster our limited vacation days, we told them we'd be there early so that in case it was available earlier, we'd be ready. When we got there, however, they told us the van that had come in that morning was already sent away with someone else. The manager was apologetic, and they sent us to the very nice nearby public pool to wait. We were glad to go to the pool, but asked to make sure we'd at least not be billed for the first night of the campervan - though we had the Duster, it was my understanding that we wouldn't be charged. Perhaps he'd meant they'd refund the difference in rental prices. They also comped the wifi puck, which in itself was perhaps $120. So maybe this (along with the pool) was fair compensation for leaving us to ourselves to find lodging the first night, then sending the replacement van away the next morning. The manager told me directly that he would "take care" of us, but when we returned the van at the end, we were told that any refund would have to be handled by email. We had a flight to catch, so I couldn't argue, but suffice it to say I emailed and haven't heard a word back. So, in the end, I think all parties involved acted in a civil manner. I think we did a good job of rolling with it, and in the end, I guess I am willing to accept the pool and the wifi puck as compensation for the night of lodging, the hassle, and the lost day of our trip. I mainly don't appreciate the blow-off at the end, and what I take as a bit of a broken promise to be "taken care of." I hate to be an obnoxious American, but I do think Lava could have been a little but more upstanding in the whole thing. Our experience with them wasn't the best, but then we got a very cheap deal on a van, and it served us well on what turned out to be a great trip. So most other people's experience will likely be fine.

It was a good experience with Lava Car Rental. The service was fine. The car drives good, but the exterior had a lot of paint damage. It looked like the car was older than 2017, which we ordered. Fortunately no more damage. we like to come again.

Unfortunately I`m not really satisfied with renting a car from lava car rental. The Duster I got had a back seat with dirt smudge and one of the front lights didn`t work. As contracted, I wanted to give back the car at the 25.12.2019 at 16:00 o`clock. The station of lava car rental was not in use, I only found an information at the front door, that the clients should take their car to their hotel and leave the key of the car there, so that lava cars could pick up the car there. Normally, that would be o.k. (I know, it was christmas), but in that case it would have been nice, if lava car rental would have informed me about this arrangement, when picking up the car, so I could arrange the last day in iceland in another way. I`m sorry, but I`m dissapointed about lava car rental - that does not mean, that I`m dissapointed about northbound.

OK I know that this is a rather cheap option but the first time I saw the car I was speechless. There were two dents, right front door was hard to control when it is opened and a lot of scratches. But when I ended my tour in Iceland I understood the dents, scratches etc. Pretty normal. BUT still I do not deserve to use a dirty car. Imagine this: you arrive your destination after hours of travel then you go to handover your rental and you have more way to drive. Actually if I had time and energy I would reject the car with that funny smell, foot step on the back seat, paper garbage inside the driver's door etc. Desperately, I took over the car. Frankly, car was in good shape, last maintanance was 1000km ago, tires were good and had no problem other than mentioned ones. Check-in and check-out was easy but I recommend Lava to give a document to the customer stating that they took over the car with no problem.

It was a very long wait at thr airport to get picked up. And the return was a disaster because waze took us to another office and nobodu was there. We almos miss our flight because it was really hard to find the return office. The car uses extremely too much gas. Other tan that Iceland is beautiful

Vehicle's navigation was absolutely useless we had to use our phone for directions.

A guy waited for us at the airport and we traveled to the site. The car was clean and in good condition (te car has some dents). Unfortunately, our car has an aftermarket fuel cap. Due to this any fuel was flowed out. We lost the front license plate, it would be nice to screw that. I hope my insurance will cover that. Actually, it costs 20.000 ISK. There is no boot cover so it was a little bit noisy. The base car floor mats are slippery and it's hard to press clutch. The tires were also overinflated (42-44 PSI instead of 31 PSI) so I have to setup TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System). I didn't know was it intentional or not.

Lava car rentals didn't have any of our details when we arrived at the airport, it was just by chance that someone else was being picked up by them, the reason being is that we booked the day before and so wasn't as yet on the system?! Not good enough, however the driver sorted us out with a vehicle which was good, however the Dacia Duster was a bit of a brute!! ok I guess if you want a 4x4 on the cheap!!!

We had a good experience with the Service of Lava Car Rental but the Car was in really bad shape! Both Main light Bulps where damaged, we realized it when we where in the north. The automatic Window on the passenger side did not close anymore, the passenger door was damaged and had no stopper. The Team tried to help us but there was no other car available to switch. Br Marc

PROBLEM at the start of the trip in that the knob came off the gear shift, then the casing around the stick so you couldn't reverse etc. After that no problem with the car- just kept putting it together.

All in all it was okay but they gave us a car which had one fog light broken and said there would be no fog in Winter but in the end there was sometimes and also the window screen had a little crack and I think that could have getting worse eventually. Also there was another insurence which was so expansive and I would have liked If they told us before about it so we could have figured out how necessary it was. Then we also had a car accident because another car drove into ours and I think they did act a bit slow and we had to do so much extra driving because they told us very late they want us to go to a garage.

The service is not as good as mentioned in the review. They emailed us that they will pick us from the airport but no one is there and luckily we bought travel sim card to call them. Then, he came but asked us to wait because he picked the another group of 5. It seemed only one person doing the work because he is only guy to pick us up and also the reception. We got our car and then found the front light bulb not working. Call them who told us to get it fixed in the gas station. Later, car got the signal shown on the dashboard and call them to help. They ask us to check the tire ourselves. It seems no road assistant and we have to settle ourselves. Luckily, we found the car problem not in middle of the no way and weekend. If not, we are in big trouble to get thing fixed. Anyway, they refund all the money paid for the repair.

Hi there! The car was great (very new model), no problems whatsoever. The booking process was also very straightforward. My only criticism pertains to Lava. The airport pick-up and drop-off worked out well, no problems there. But we basically got no relevant info when we picked up the car regarding driving in Iceland, insurance etc. which would have been most useful. Only upon further enquiry we were told that we should not cross creaks or rivers with our car (we had the full insurance package). However, we explicitly rented the Dacia Duster to be able to drive on F-roads ... which typically or at least very often come with river crossings .. so this is a clear contradiction. As a result we avoided driving on F-roads which means that we could have rented a cheaper non 4x4 car. When we dropped off the car at the end of our journey I asked one of the Lava guys whether we would have been able to drive on F-roads that were marked to be for "mountain vehicles" only (see road.is, the main reference for road conditions). The guy simply responded that he didn't know and shrugged his shoulders. How can someone working for a car rental agency not know something as essential as that? So overall, a quick briefing before departure would have been a great help! Not sure how your grading system works (whether 1 or 5 is the best), in the German school grading system 1 is the best. Hope this info helps!